Every Man Has One
by Oxymoronic Alliteration
Summary: Tony swings by Tim's apartment to give him a ride to a crime scene. He finds the door ajar and hears muffled sobs coming from inside. What he finds inside is not what he expected. Written for the NFA Community Is That Good or Bad? Challenge.


Tony stifled a yawn as he rubbed his eyes furiously. He felt guilty for being angry at the Marine who had been found murdered in his apartment that evening, but he had been counting on catching up on some much needed sleep tonight. The team had been working on another case through the week and had only closed it the day before. It had seemed like his head had only just hit the pillow when his phone began to ring.

"Get here soon, DiNozzo," Gibbs had ordered, not in the mood to deal with Tony's habitual tardiness to early morning crime scenes. "Pick up McGee on the way."

"McGee? When did I become his chauffer?"

"When his car had to go in for repairs, DiNozzo."

"Ziva lives closer, boss. I'd be going out of my way."

"Ziva is already on her way to the scene. This is not a debate." The phone had clicked on the other end, leaving Tony with nothing to do but oblige to the demand.

Tony reached Tim's door, mentally cursing the young agent for all of this. His fist was raised and posed to knock when he heard something coming inside. It sounded suspiciously like someone crying. He gently placed his ear against the door to get a better listen. The door gently creaked open from his weight being placed against it. It had been left unlocked and ajar.

Tony instinctively grabbed his gun and held it, ready to shoot if necessary. He gathered himself before pushing the door open and entering, gun leveled. There was no one in the living area and the lights were all out, but a soft, flickering glow was coming from Tim's bedroom. That, he realized, was also from where the sobs were coming. The agent stealthily crept toward the room. All anger he'd had moments before dissipated as he feared for his co-worker's life.

"Federal agent! Freeze!" he shouted, his gun raised, as he burst into the dark room.

"Tony!" Tim was sitting atop his bed, still dressed in his pajamas, with a half-empty box of pizza beside the bed. "What the hell are you doing? Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

Tony angry flicked the lights on. "What the hell are _you_ doing, McGee? Your door was open."

"Oh…I must not have closed it all the way after the pizza delivery guy came by," he responded sheepishly. "It's been doing that a lot lately. I think I need to have the lock checked."

Tony rolled his eyes as he replaced his gun. "Why aren't you dressed? Didn't Gibbs call you about the case?"

"Yes," Tim replied, "but he said you were picking me up. I figured I had a good hour or hour and a half to go before you actually showed up." Tony noticed Tim's cheeks were damp and that he was rubbing his eyes.

"Haha," Tony said humorlessly. "You're hilarious, McWaterworks." At Tim's confused expression, Tony gleamed. "You're sobbing like a pre-teen girl at a boy band concert."

"Am not!" Tim retorted with a pout.

"You so are, Probie San, and don't think that you–" Tony cut off as he glanced over at the television hanging on the wall. The image on the screen was paused, though it was immediately recognizable to Tony. "Are you watching _E.T._?"

Tim shrugged. "I figured you'd take your own sweet time getting here anyway." Tim grabbed the remote control and stopped the DVD. "I just…I get emotional when I watch it."

Tony shook his head sadly. "You're such a baby."

"Oh, right, like you don't cry at some movies."

"Not _E.T._, McGoo. That's just lame."

Tim grinned. "Ha! You didn't deny that you cry at some movies, so that means you _do_ cry at some movies."

Tony frowned, suddenly uncomfortable with this conversation. "Well…even men have that one movie that just gets to them…"

"So which movie is it?"

"It's…uh…a movie you've never heard of…"

"What movie, DiNozzo?" Tim repeated, taking glee in Tony's discomfort.

Tony sighed. "_Old Yeller_," he admitted. "You happy now?"

"You know…I've never seen that movie."

Tony's eyes grew to the size of golf balls. "What? That's a crime against manhood, McGee! That's like having never seen _The Wizard of Oz_ or something." Tony grabbed Tim by the arm and pulled him toward the door. "Come on, this has to be rectified."

"Tony! Let me go!" Tim protested. "I'm not dressed."

"I don't care! We're going to the video store. You are going to watch _Old Yeller_ and finally take that first step into manhood!"

As soon as the door slammed behind them, the two phones that had been left in the room began to ring, one displaying "Gibbs" on the caller ID and the other displaying "Ziva."

* * *

"Okay, so we've got the popcorn, the soda, the Junior Mints, the Gummy Bears and, of course, the movie," Tony said as they re-entered Tim's apartment. Behind him, Tim entered carrying all of the aforementioned items.

"You could help me, you know," he grunted as he struggled not to drop any of the items. He kicked the door behind him, hoping it would close.

"As senior field agent I outrank you," Tony reminded him with a grin. "So stop your bellyaching."

Tim glared at Tony, but obliged. He brought the items into his room and dropped them on the bed. "Is this the only place you have a television, McGee?" Tony asked in disgust. "I don't really want to sit on your bed."

"Are you still afraid of cooties or something?" Tim asked sarcastically.

"No, but I don't need your geek genes corrupting my suavity."

Tim grabbed the recliner that sat beside the door and pushed it over to the bed. "Here, DiNozzo. Now shut up so we can get this over with."

Tony plopped down in the chair and reclined it back. "You go pop the popcorn," he ordered, "I'll set up the DVD."

"I don't remember signing up to be your servant."

"McRude! I'm your guest and, as such, you are supposed to be courteous and make sure I'm comfortable. Where are your manners?"

Tim tossed the pack of popcorn to him. "You want popcorn? Go pop it yourself!

"Oh, it's on now, Elf Lord!" Tony tore open the box of Junior Mints, grabbed a handful and threw them at Tim.

"Hey!" he sputtered as he shielded himself from flying candy. "Stop that! I'm going to have to clean this up!"

"Good! It'll teach you to be polite to guests!"

"You're not a guest, you're a pest!" Tim ducked behind his bed. He reached his hand up to the top of the bed and felt around. His hand fell upon a box which he pulled down behind the bed with him. He tore it open and popped back up. "You want a food fight, DiNozzo? Fine!" Several Gummy Bears flew through the air toward the older agent.

"What the _hell_ is going on?"

Both men stopped where they were, hands filled with ammunition ready to be thrown. There in the doorway stood Gibbs, red-faced and obviously ready to erupt at any moment. The men looked sheepishly at the room and at each other. The floor and bed were covered in brightly colored bears and chocolate covered mints. A Gummy Bear was stuck in Tony's hair and several mints had fallen down Tim's shirt.

"Is this why you two haven't shown up at the crime scene yet? You're too busy having a candy food fight?"

Tony and Tim began speaking at once, each trying to deflect their boss' ire.

"You see Tony was being a pain…"

"Tim doesn't know how to entertain guests…"

"He started the whole thing!"

"He joined in!"

"I don't care!" Gibbs shouted. "I want to know why Ziva and I have been assessing a crime scene by ourselves."

Tim pointed to Tony. "He insisted I watch _Old Yeller_ and pulled me out of my apartment to the video store…in my pajamas."

Tony shot Tim a scathing glare. "Boss, you've got to understand! It's a classic and Probie has never seen it."

"You've never seen _Old Yeller_, McGee?"

Tim shifted uncomfortably. "Um…no…" He glowered under Tony's impish smirk.

"It's pretty pathetic, isn't it boss?"

Gibbs raised his eyebrows. "And how did this entire conversation start?"

"When I came in, McGee was all teary-eyed watching _E.T._"

"Every guy has that one movie that, you know, really gets them all emotional! Even Tony admitted that he cries whenever he sees _Old Yeller_." Tim looked at Gibbs. "What movie makes you…uh…"

"Cry?"

"Well…yeah."

Tony laughed. "I don't think Gibbs is the crying type, McGee."

"Are you saying I'm not sensitive, DiNozzo?"

"Uh…of course not, boss. I'm sure you're as sensitive as they come. I just don't see you getting all weepy at some movie.

Gibbs, to their surprised, laughed. "Are you kidding, DiNozzo? The first time I saw _Shane_ I cried. Of course," he added, "I was a child at the time, but it certainly tugged at my heart strings."

Tim and Tony exchanged glances of uncertainty. Neither could imagine Gibbs ever crying, nor had they ever heard him use the term "heart strings" before. "That's really touching, boss," Tim commented. "I've never seen that movie either."

"Uh, yeah, me neither," Tony admitted.

Gibbs laughed. "_You_ haven't seen it? You really don't have any business berating McGee, Tony, if you haven't seen _Shane_."

"Well, the video store is still open…" Tony trailed off with a grin.

* * *

Ziva slammed down the hallway of Tim's apartment building. She had been at the Marine's apartment for the past three hours and had practically processed the entire crime scene by herself. She wasn't sure where the trio of men was, but she was going to get to the bottom of this. She could understand Tony being late and Tim, as he was currently dependant upon Tim for a ride, would be as late as Tony. But Gibbs? This was not at all like him. She had tried calling all three cell phones, each time getting voicemail. With each message left on their phones she had grown increasingly angry.

When she got to the door she immediately heard sounds from within. She considered knocking, but decided against it. She wanted whoever was in there to be surprised when she burst in. Ziva plucked her lock picking tools from her coat pocket, but found that they weren't necessary as the door was already unlocked and slightly open. The puzzled Mossad officer pushed the door open slowly and peeked in. The living area was empty and it was apparent that the person or persons in the apartment were in the bedroom.

Ziva stealthily crept through the apartment and leaned against the wall next to the doorway.

"Wow…I never thought I'd ever be so…" the strained voice cut off with a sniff. Ziva recognized it as Tim's voice. "This is…"

"Yeah, Probie," Tony said in an equally somber tone. "It always gets me." His statement was followed by another sniffle.

"I had to put down a dog once," Gibbs voice cut in. "As I did it all I could think of was this. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do."

"Between this and _Shane_ I think I'm emotionally tapped out."

"I hear you, McGee," Tony commented.

Ziva, despite her ire, had to grin as she eavesdropped on the trio. She decided she wouldn't announce herself. Instead, she slipped out of the apartment and walked back to her car. It was almost time for them to be getting to the office anyway, so she figured she'd let them collect themselves before they got in to work that day. Then, of course, she would tease them mercilessly.

She shook her head as she started her ignition. And men claim women are the weepy ones.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**


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